Real Detroit Weekly: Northern Lights Lounge

We all love the bathrooms (So big! So clean! So nice!) at Northern Lights Lounge, but this place is more than just a pretty potty. If the Big Lebowski were set in Detroit instead of Los Ang-ga-leez, this is where the Dude and Walter would have hung out and debated whether or not "Chinamen" was the preferred nomenclature ... something about the orange vinyl and white aluminum lounge chairs, the scuffed-up shuffleboard and the old-Vegas-esque multi-colored...

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944 Detroit: Cupcakeries

"Good things come in small packages — nowhere is that more evident than with the current cupcake craze. These metro Detroit bakeries will create your wedding cupcake tower in any custom color, theme, flavor or design you desire..."[Note: since this printed another cupcakery opened in Royal Oak, Taste Love Cupcakes.]Read the rest of the article he...

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Detroit Institute of Bagels: Filling the Void of Detroit's Bagel Desert

If you live in the city of Detroit and have a craving for a soft, fresh bagel with cream cheese and a good cup of coffee in the morning, good luck to you. And if it’s a weekend you can just forget it entirely. Not only are the greater downtown districts of Detroit sorely lacking in decent coffee shops – yes, we love Café Con Leche and Café 1923, but they’re not exactly walking distance from downtown or Midtown; Starbucks and Biggby cater to coffee-as-your-daily-caloric-intake...

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944 Detroit: In the Garden of Eatin'

Also from the November 2010 issue, this one you have to view as a PDF by clicking here. (Thinking out loud: kind of funny to see how much of this information is already outdated only six months later.)But for funsies, I'll give you the full text I had compiled pre-edit:Top Nine Dining Trends in Metro Detroit (2010)Pizza Goes PoshIt’s a staple of the American diet and comes in as many combinations of styles, flavors and preparation methods as there are possible permutations in a game of Sudoku.   But thanks to a new breed of wine bar, pizza...

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Real Detroit Weekly: Tipsy McStaggers

"Simpsons fans will recognize the name of the rival bar that tried to buy the secret ingredient to the "Flaming Moe" for $1,000,000. Tipsy McStaggers is now a reality in Warren, and they've got a cartoonishly oversized burger to match the cartoon-inspired name.'Open for almost a year now, Tipsy McStaggers is an Irish pub for the A.D.D. generation. They've got all the Michigan lottery games and Keno, seven plasma TVs for all the sporting events and...

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Real Detroit Weekly: Buddy's Pizzeria

"You know that delicious, mouth-watering, heavenly, orgasmic style of square deep dish pizza with the thick, oil-soaked crust baked to crispy, crunchy perfection, where the cheese is slightly browned and all bubbly and the crusty edge crunches in your mouth with just the slightest bit of chewy elasticity keeping it all together as the cheese stretches and you have to grab it between both fingers and drop it in your mouth in a wholly undignified display...

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Pink FlaminGO!: Food Truck Fever Hits the Streets of Detroit

Well, that's not really fair to say. It implies that the concept of mobile food trucks is a new thing here, and it isn't. (Hell, it was even my first feature article.) What is new is the sudden emergence of mobile food trucks and carts outside of Southwest Detroit, away from areas predominantly filled with construction workers and skilled laborers, and out into trendy suburban neighborhoods like Royal Oak and Ann Arbor. They used to be called "roach...

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Real Detroit Weekly: The Avenue Sports Grille

"Watching the playoff games on your own 42'' HD flatscreen TV at home is one thing. Watching the playoff games on one of 14 HD plasma screens AND 4 giant HD projector screens is quite another. At the Avenue Sports Grille in Wayne, every seat in the house is center ice.'As a sports bar, they don't mess around. Nearly every square inch of wall space is covered in screen. It is a sports bar. You come here to watch sports. It's that simple.'But sports...

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944 Detroit: The Art of Charcuterie

This appeared in the November 2010 Food Issue. The photograph in the link is skewed so I didn't copy it here."Charcuterie is a very old culinary art that has been brought back into vogue in a big way, thanks in large part to Detroit’s own Brian Polcyn, chef/owner of the Forest Grill in Birmingham and Cinco Lagos in Milford.''The whole idea of preserving food before refrigeration, I did not invent that,' Polcyn says. But thanks to his seminal book on the subject, Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking and Curing, Polcyn has been credited...

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944 Detroit: Urban Roots

“Urban farming” has been a big buzz phrase in Detroit over the last couple of years, but while many people realize that Detroit is on the forefront of this urban sustainability movement simply because of its vast stretches of unutilized land, the deeper implications of such a radical shift in food acquisition and allocation systems are a little less easily understood. Urban Roots, a documentary from filmmaker Mark MacInnis, explores the social impact...

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944 Detroit: Roaring 2011

 Photograph by Scott Spellman for 944 Detroit."It wasn’t long ago that the term 'craft cocktail' didn’t mean much to drinking audiences, but thanks to a handful of craft cocktail aficionados and a resurgence in consumer appreciation for all things artisanal and handcrafted, craft cocktails are coming back in a big way — so big, in fact, that the month of April saw not one, not two, but three new craft cocktail bars opening in the area.'What...

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The Henry Ford: Everything Old is Made New Again

Most of us only think of the Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village in the context of elementary school field trips we would have much rather spend at Cedar Point ... when a 12-year-old is given the option between rollercoasters and hands-on historical education via painstakingly detailed re-creation (remember learning how to write with quills and ink wells in the Greenfield Village schoolhouse?), well, show me the 12-year-old who chooses the latter...

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Real Detroit Weekly: Ye Olde Tap Room

"We have longtime bartenders here, people who keep their jobs for 10 years or more," says Mattie Armstrong, the manager at Ye Olde Tap Room. As he tells RDW this, in walks Jennifer Moody, who has worked here for 15 years. "We're all like family here," she says. "Our customers are our true friends. We've been through weddings together; through funerals together ... we live our lives together."That's a nice thing to say, but it's quite another to see....

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944 Detroit: Isn't it Grand?

Photograph provided by ArtPrize."Grand Rapids is fast becoming an impossibly hip, progressive arts town, thanks in large part to the explosive success of last year’s inaugural ArtPrize competition. ArtPrize began in 2009 and made waves throughout the international arts community by announcing the world’s largest prize for art: $449,000 in total prizes, with $250,000 going to the first place winner. And that wasn’t the only exciting thing about...

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Real Detroit Weekly: Burrito Wars!

My, that IS a big burrito! While Señor Lopez typically shines in the salsa department (it's made fresh with a secret blend), their Señor Lopez Big Burrito is definitely gunning for the number one spot. The Señor Lopez Big Burrito entrée features one BIG burrito stuffed full of beans, rice, cheese, lettuce, tomato and your choice of meat, served with beans & rice or a side salad. And it's only $6.50. Be sure to grab some chips and salsa while...

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Real Detroit Weekly: Rojo Mexican Bistro

"Rojo Mexican Bistro is the latest concept from the Vicari family, the well-known restaurateurs behind the Andiamo Group. Their first location for this upscale Mexican cuisine concept was so successful, they opened additional locations in Rochester and St. Clair Shores (another is scheduled to open soon in Partridge Creek Mall).'What's the draw of Rojo? Unlike other cheesy Tex-Mex and Mexicali joints with cactus paintings and sombreros mounted on...

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Real Detroit Weekly: Armando's

"If you've never visited Southwest Detroit for Cinco de Mayo, you are missing out on a distinctly Detroit experience. Vernor becomes gridlocked with cars and trucks blaring salsa and reggaeton, flying the flags of their various heritage – Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic. Bagley in Mexicantown is shut down to through traffic, and outdoor vendors grill up tacos and sell beer out of coolers. Lines to get into restaurants wrap around the...

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Portlandia in Detroit: Lunch with Maria Stuart of R. Stuart & Co. Winery

One thing I've noticed whenever I go to a different city for any length of time and come back to Detroit is that Detroiters tend to be very ..."... provincial," Maria Stuart offers to me over lunch, an honest observation as we talk about both of our experiences with the city. As a native metro Detroiter herself, Maria left the area over 20 years ago. She went to school in Indiana, worked in Chicago, fell in love in Washington and raised a family...

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